THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Executive Director, Crystal Field

Presents

PERSEPHONE PALMER STEPS OUT

A Play By CAITLYN WALTERMIRE

June 19 – July 6, 2025
Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sunday at 3:00 PM
NO PERFORMANCE JULY 4TH

Tickets $20, Students & Seniors $15
Run Time: 90 minutes, No intermission
CABARET THEATER

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003
Directions

Persephone Palmer Steps Out is set during a wintery, sub-zero Summer in the 1990s in a basement apartment hundreds of feet below the ground. This is the home of the Palmer family, headed by the tempestuous and charismatic Connie, whose marriage to the devoted and enabling Herm oversees a fraught dynamic with her fractious stepson Joe. The occasional wandering-ins of Stef, Joe’s girlfriend, and their new friend Paul punctuate the isolated family’s routine, as do the shambolic visits from Connie’s brother Richard and his much-younger wife Lisa. Despite the magical setting of the play, the dynamics between the characters are rooted in realism – except for the fact that Persie, the Palmer’s 13-year-old human daughter, is the
family’s “cat.” Yet as the landscape shifts and Persie begins to bond with some of the new visitors, it appears that some changes may be underway – for better or for worse. With character archetypes derived from Greek mythology, Persephone Palmer Steps Out is a darkly hilarious exploration of the god-like nature of familial hierarchies, the contingencies of love, conditional acceptance, and the divine, desperate pursuit of control. Trigger warnings: Domestic violence, references to sexual assault.

“This play explores parents’ godlike power from their children’s perspective—divine abuse of power, fate v. free will, sexual influence, and a hero’s journey—and so, its characters’ relationships reflect those between figures in Greek mythology,” shared playwright Caitlyn Waltermire. “Hades is a woman now! References to perpetual winter, ferry rides, snake sex, goose foreplay, smell of sulfur, etc. are all in this vein. Being a thirteen-year-old girl has been a heady nightmare since ancient Greece.”

 

Playwright – Caitlyn Waltermire

CAST
Persephone Palmer – SOPHIE KELLY-HEDRICK*
Connie Palmer – ZUHAIRAH*
Herm Palmer – GUY VENTOLIERE*
Joe Palmer – ALEC FEBBRARO
Paul – DIOGO DE OLIVEIRA
Stef – JESSALYN CHARLES
Richard Scott – PHIL OETIKER
Lisa Scott – ELIZABETH SHERMAN

*these Actors are appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association

PRODUCTION
Director – Natalie Thomas
Assistant Director/Intimacy Coordinator – Alysia Homminga
Playwright – Caitlyn Waltermire
Sound Designer – Wendy Maciver
Lighting Designer – Lauren Lee
Scenic Designer – Maren Prophit